I do believe Aleksandr Voinov is the only author who can push my comfort level to its very limits—and make me love it, every salacious, kinky, erotic step of the way.

Anyone who’s been following this series knows that Silvio Spadaro is an entity unto himself. He is at once seemingly without conscience yet has a sense of loyalty that runs so deeply he will extend himself beyond every accepted social boundary to avenge the man he is sworn to protect. All while seducing that man—who is very married—pushing Stefano to accept his attraction and give in to the lust that draws them to each other.

The more that’s revealed about Silvio, the more I’m drawn to him and his utter lack of inhibitions. He is an entirely carnal being who knows how to use his innate sensuality to his benefit, whether it’s against his enemies or for the benefit of those he desires. There have been many times that I’ve wondered at Silvio’s complexity, yet understand him in ways that seem too simplistic to be true. He is, at his basest level, a man who lives by his own rules, but is also a man who is entirely ruled by his need for pain and pleasure, by his sense of loyalty and duty; there is no right or wrong for Silvio—only the ends justify the means by which he gets results. He is unlike any character I’ve ever known. He’s the sort of man who shocks and surprises and seduces with equanimity.

As the war against the Russians escalates, Stefano may have gained another weapon in his arsenal in Franco Spadaro, a man who promises to be every bit as complex as his brother, and whose relationship with Silvio is…unconventional, to say the very least. One thing is certain; it will be interesting to see how both of these men affect the status quo of Stefano’s life.

The Dark Soul series is Vashtan doing what he does best: daring his readers to think outside the paradigm of romance and venture into the realms of the forbidden erotic, to find intimacy in the unexpected, but fully accepting the untraditional is essential to the story.

It is a seduction of the most sublime sort.